


We Could've Been Friends in Another Life

by Werederg



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: AU where Hope goes back to the school after coming out of Malivore, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Hope needs a break and a friend
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:33:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21746080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Werederg/pseuds/Werederg
Summary: If Josie hadn't turned Lizzie and Hope against each other when they were young, they might've been friends. They might've been more. Their relationship is once big "what if?" that neither girl can answer, not that they had enough time to try.When Hope comes back from Malivore, with no one in her life being able to remember her, she accidently stumbles onto the answer some of those what if's.
Relationships: Hope Mikaelson & Alaric Saltzman, Hope Mikaelson/Lizzie Saltzman, Landon Kirby/Josie Saltzman (mentioned)
Comments: 40
Kudos: 267





	1. Going Home

Hope had thought it would be easier than this. All she needed to do was spend a few days at Mystic Falls high to track down that troll and make sure it was dead, all while making sure no one noticed her or the troll. But of course nothing was ever easy, was it?

In the span of one day, Hope had had to face the blank stare of a Dr. (Principal?) Saltzman who didn’t remember her at all, got caught doing magic by Dr. Saltzman, effectively blowing any cover she had, and accidently exposed one of her classmates to an ugly ass troll, which meant she had to see MG again too. And she hadn’t even killed the damn thing yet. Hope is about ready to cry for the second time that day as she sits in Dr. Saltzman’s office.

“Hope, I know I mentioned this earlier, but I really think you should consider going to the Salvatore school. It was made for people like you,” Alaric said, sitting behind his desk.

“I really wish I could, but…” Hope trails off, not having a way to explain how painful it would be to go back to a place full of people that couldn’t remember her. Not without subjecting Dr. Saltzman to pain of knowing that he had forgotten her in the first place.

“Hope, whatever reason it is that you think you can’t go there, or don’t deserve to, it won’t matter. The staff there are good people and they know how to help kids who have gone through tough things. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done or what you’re afraid of, they can help.” Alaric stops and sighs. “I guess I just hate the idea of someone as young and skilled as you are, not having a safe place to grow and learn. Everyone deserves that.”

“It sounds really nice, I just…” Hope murmurs, omitting another actual reason. She hadn’t planned on staying in Mystic Falls long, but something tells Hope that Dr. Saltzman would object even more to the idea of her wandering off into the world on her own.

“Well, as long as you have somewhere to go.” 

Hope freezes unconsciously at that. _God, where was she going to go tonight?_

Alaric definitely notices Hope’s reaction. He narrows his eyes at her. “Hope? You do have somewhere to go, right?”

Hope shakes her head slowly, too tired to think of a lie. A part of her suddenly wishes she could just go back to her room at the Salvatore school, to her stuff, to someplace familiar, something close to what she might call home. She just wanted to lie down and not think about all of her problems for at least a few hours.

“Hope.” Alaric sighs. He gets up and walks closer to her, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. “You know I can’t send you out without a place to go.”

Hope nods, struggling to keep her tears from falling. She didn’t even know why she was crying. It had just been such a long day and she just wanted to go home, except she didn’t have a home to go to anymore because no one could remember her. Okay, so maybe that’s why she’s crying.

“I’m going to make a call to the Salvatore School, okay?” Alaric says softly. “They’ll be happy to have you.”

All Hope can do is nod as more tears fall down her cheeks. Alaric walks over to the phone and dials up the school.

“...Yes, that would be great. I can drive her over tonight if that works… Okay, we’ll be there in a bit. Thanks.” Alaric hangs up the phone and turns back to Hope. He picks up the tissue box on his desk and hands them over to her, which she accepts gratefully.

“Whenever, you’re ready to go. They’ll have a room ready for you and the dining halls are open late so you can still get something to eat if you haven’t yet.” There is such a gentle kindness in Alaric’s voice. It makes Hope’s heart ache.

Hope stands up and hands Dr. Saltzman back the tissue box after stuffing a few more in her pockets. She means to thank him, tell him how much his kindness means to her right now, but she doesn’t trust herself to say anything. But then she finds herself stepping forward and wrapping her arms around Dr. Saltzman, relaxing unconsciously against his familiar warmth.

Alaric freezes, clearly not expecting it. After a second, he awkwardly returns the hug.

“Sorry, sorry,” Hope says quickly, stepping back and wiping her eyes. She chides herself for doing something so stupid. _He doesn’t remember you_ , Hope forcefully reminds herself.

“It’s okay. Are you ready to go? Do you have to grab anything?” Alaric says, looking rather uncomfortable.

“I’m ready,” Hope says and she follows him to his car. They drive the familiar road to the Salvatore school in awkward silence and Hope feels the tears prickling at her eyes again. She really doesn’t want to cry anymore.

When they reach the gates, Dorian is standing on the other side of them. Hope and Alaric exit the car and make their way toward the gate as Dorian unlocks them.

“Alaric,” Dorian greets, “it’s good to see you.”

“Yeah, it’s good to see you too.” Alaric furrows his brow for a moment. “Why isn’t the new headmaster here doing this?” He asks.

“I was already up, so I handled it.”

“Okay, well, this is Hope,” Alaric says and then turns to address Hope. “If you ever need anything, don’t be afraid to give me a call,” Alaric says, handing Hope his business card.

Hope nods and takes the card before turning to face Dorian.

Dorian waves awkwardly. “Hello, Hope. I’m Dorian. I’ll take you inside and show you to your room. You’ll get a full tour tomorrow if you’re up for it and we’ll make sure that you have clothes for tomorrow as well. We’re glad you’re here.”

Hope nods and makes her way through the gate. She turns and waves goodbye to Dr. Saltzman. He waves back before getting into his car and pulling away. There is a melancholy expression on his face, and Hope can only guess as to why. She’s too tired to consider it for long though, moving to follow Dorian as she dreams of falling asleep in her own bed.

Oddly enough, the room that they assign Hope is her old room. It doesn’t have any of her things in it, well her contraband is probably still in her hiding places, but she was more hoping for like a sweatshirt or something.

Dorian mutters something about them not knowing why the room was unused before leaving her to get settled. There is fresh bedding on the bed and a very comfy looking blanket and pillow. And that is basically all Hope sees as her exhaustion starts to weigh on her. She’d have time to take a better look around in the morning, or at least that’s what she tells herself as she takes off her jacket and lies down in the bed. She’s asleep in seconds, for what she thinks is the first time in her life.

Hope wakes up to a knock on her door. She groans softly and ducks her head under her blankets to avoid the sunlight streaming through her windows. Unfortunately, whoever is at the door clearly doesn’t take her silence as a signal to come back later, as they knock again, louder this time. Hope growls low under her breath and drags herself out of bed, fully intending to tell whoever is at the door to go away so she could keep sleeping.

When Hope opens the door, however, she is faced with a very awake Lizzie Saltzman, dressed in her usual stylish outfit. Having slept in a familiar room and being greeted by a familiar face, Hope momentarily forgets the nature of her situation.

“Lizzie?” Hope says in surprise, almost immediately realizing her mistake as Lizzie’s eyes widen.

“Oh, did they tell you I was coming?” Lizzie asks, clearly shocked that the new student knew her name already.

“Uh, yeah, they did,” Hope says quickly. 

“Well, I feel like a proper introduction is past due, then.” Lizzie pauses, dramatically of course. “I’m Elizabeth Saltzman, Lizzie for short, and you will have the privilege of receiving a tour of the school from me today. I brought you a change of clothes. There’s two sets in there, so something should fit,” Lizzie says, handing Hope a bundle of clothes.

“Okay, thanks,” Hope says, a little stunned from almost making a really big mistake. Hope also can’t help but smile a little at Lizzie’s dramatic antics. There’s something so ridiculous and so familiar about Lizzie that just being around her is enough to make Hope feel at home. Which is something Hope certainly never thought she would say in her entire life.

“Feel free to change, I’ll be out here when you’re done,” Lizzie says with a smile. She takes a step to the left and leans against the wall outside Hope’s door as Hope steps back into her room, the door closing behind her.

Hope changes quickly, wishing she had time to shower, but not wanting to keep Lizzie waiting. The clothes fit her well, and she thinks that the pants might actually be hers. Her stuff must’ve gotten recycled into the school’s storage.

When Hope comes out of her room, Lizzie looks her up and down and gives a approving nod. “I thought those pants would look good on you. Shall we?” She says, motioning for them to walk down the hall.

Hope follows her absently. She doesn’t know if it’s the compliment, the complete irony of the compliment, or that fact that Lizzie had been the one to compliment her, but Hope feels extremely disoriented. Everything is so familiar and unfamiliar at once. After a moment, Hope realizes that Lizzie is talking and tunes back in.

“You’re probably hungry, so we can go to the dining hall first.” Lizzie says. “The dining hall is on the first floor and shouldn’t be hard to find most mornings. Just look for where all the kids in pajamas are going.”

And Hope is hungry, hungrier than she’d realized. Lizzie raises a curious eyebrow at her from behind her cup of coffee as Hope scarfs down three plates worth of food. Vaguely seeing the look out of the corner of her eye, Hope expects Lizzie to make a rude comment about her eating habits, like she always does, but it never comes.

Instead Lizzie gives a slight laugh as she brings her mug back down to the table. “Are you sure you’re not a wolf?” Lizzie asks with an amused smile.

The comment sets off Hope’s fight or flight response, but she shoves it down. “Um, yeah, no. Just a witch,” Hope responds nervously, but thankfully Lizzie doesn’t seem to notice.

“So, once you’re done eating your weight in food, I’ll show you the grounds and then some of the classroom areas. You should be meeting with a counselor to get your schedule figured out tomorrow, I think. Don’t quote me on that,” Lizzie says with a laugh.

It’s weird for Hope. The way the Lizzie teases is extremely familiar, but it lacks the mean spiritedness and genuine insult that Hope is so used to from the girl. Yeah, the two girls had begun reconciling before Hope had thrown herself into Malivore, but that doesn’t mean she was used to Lizzie being anything but mean to her.

And that’s the way the rest of the morning goes. Lizzie shows Hope around, being uncharacteristically nice and friendly. Hope struggles to keep her cover of being a new student, trying her best not to walk ahead of Lizzie or say anything she shouldn’t know. It’s much harder than she thought it would be, especially considering how many questions she wants to ask about things she shouldn’t know anything about, like about why Dr. Saltzman isn’t headmaster.

Despite how strange it is, Hope appreciates Lizzie’s constant explanation of the things around them. The girl always did have a tendency to ramble, which Hope used to find irritating, but now she is grateful for the distraction. It keeps her from dwelling on all the familiar faces that don’t recognize her and what will happen if she runs into Landon, which she knows is inevitable.

Lizzie also keeps asking Hope about herself, which is nice and perfectly normal, but Hope can’t say much without giving herself away. She tries her best to dodge the questions without drawing too much suspicion.

“So, where are you from then, Hope?” Lizzie asks with a friendly smile.

Hope hesitates. “Um, I’ve lived in a lot of different places,” Hope says awkwardly. “What about you, have you lived in Mystic Falls long?”

“Pretty much all of my life. My dad started this school when my sister and I were 6 years old.”

“Oh, wow, that’s cool. Um, do you usually do tours for new students?” Hope asks Lizzie another question quickly to avoid receiving one herself.

“Oh yeah, considering I basically grew up here, I know this school like the back of my hand. I actually usually do this with my twin sister, but she’s hanging out with her _boyfriend_ today.” Lizzie says the word boyfriend with a heap of contempt.

Hope cringes at the statement, knowing that it’s Landon she’s referring to. Although, Hope has to appreciate Lizzie’s clear distaste for Josie and Landon’s relationship, even if she knows she shouldn’t.

“Speaking of which, do you have a boyfriend?” Lizzie asks in an odd tone of voice. If Hope didn’t know any better, she would’ve thought that Lizzie was flirting.

“No, I definitely don’t have a boyfriend,” Hope says darkly, her gaze falling to the floor at the reminder.

Lizzie seems to interpret Hope’s reaction a little differently, her eyes going wide. “Oh, I get that. I don’t have a boyfriend either, so at least you’re in good company,” Lizzie says, with a smile, watching Hope out of the corner of her eye.

Hope doesn’t notice the misunderstanding and just nods as they continue on the tour.

The tour ends around noon with Lizzie taking Hope to the headmasters office to meet the new head master. Lizzie dramatically laments having to go back to doing her homework and waves goodbye. Hope rolls her eyes fondly before knocking on the office door. An accented voice invites her inside and she walks in.

The headmaster immediately sets off several warning alarms in Hope’s head. She makes a mental note to keep an eye on him. He goes off on a ten minute rant about the virtues of supernatural ability, unnecessarily explaining his belief set. Once he’s done, the headmaster informs Hope that she will meet with a counselor to discuss how her schedule will look once they are done speaking. The headmaster finishes by welcoming her rather coldly to the school, which Hope notes down as another odd behavior, and sending her down the hall.

The counselor conducts a few tests to determine where Hope can start in the curriculum. Hope reigns her abilities in a little to not give herself away too much. Either way, the counselor is impressed and gives her a mock up of her schedule, saying that she can start as early as tomorrow if she is feeling up to it. The counselor finishes by asking if there is anything they can do for Hope, and when she says no, they send her away.

Hope takes the opportunity to sneak off campus to go back to hunting the injured troll. Despite everything that she had been struggling to process all day, the back of her mind had been constantly itching to finish the job she started. She needed to put that troll down before it hurt anyone. Hope easily remembers how to circumvent the school’s security and escapes without anyone seeing.

Dr. Saltzman is surprised to see her, to say the least, but Hope just explains that she needs his help to chase down the troll, which is only partially true. After everything that has happened so far, the logical part of Hope’s brain tells her that it’s probably not a good idea for her to go in alone. And maybe, despite the fact he can’t remember her, Hope still finds Dr. Saltzman’s presence comforting. Either way, he agrees to help and they set off tracking the thing.

It takes the majority of the afternoon for them to find and bring down the creature. During the fight, Hope fire spells the thing’s hair, revealing a third eye that had been hidden underneath. _Guess it’s not a troll, then_ , Hope thinks as she tries to wrack her mind for any information on cyclopses. In the end, Dr. Saltzman brings it down with a crossbow bolt to the third eye and the body conveniently burns to ash right after.

Hope awkwardly thanks Dr. Saltzman for his help, and he looks like he wants to ask her a whole heap of questions. Which is why she leaves as unceremoniously and as quickly as possible, knowing she didn’t have any good answers for him. Hope rushes back to campus, hoping no one noticed that she had been gone. She makes it back just in time for dinner, and, man, is she hungry.


	2. Lizzie has a Crush

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I totally headcanon Lizzie as being a secret Lord of the Rings nerd and it shows.

Lizzie only spends thirty minutes on her homework before giving up. She can’t concentrate. She can’t stop thinking about that new student. Hope is very pretty and sort of mysterious. Lizzie had noticed Hope avoiding her questions, and it has only increased her interest in the girl. It also doesn’t help that Josie comes back from her date with Landon around that time. The universe clearly doesn’t want Lizzie to learn how to do derivatives.

“So, how’d the date go?” Lizzie asks as soon as Josie has passed the threshold.

“It was good. Kinda awkward, I don’t know,” Josie says with a noncommittal shrug.

“Yeah, well, that’s what happens when you date an awkward man-child,” Lizzie comments. “Anyways, guess what I did this morning while you were galavanting around with a sentient jar of mayonnaise.”

Josie looks like she wants to argue or say something in response to her sister’s near constant insults aimed at the boy she likes, but she doesn’t, only rolling her eyes and humoring her sister. “What did you do this morning?”

“I showed a new student around.”

“What? Why didn’t you tell me? What’re they like?” Josie asks, interest piqued.

“I knew you were busy, so I didn’t bother,” Lizzie says, a hint of resentment in her voice. “And her name is Hope and she is so cute. She’s a witch that just came in last night, and did I mention that she’s cute?”

Josie laughs a little at Lizzie ability to get a crush on practically every new student that came through the gates. Usually, Lizzie’s assumed claim over any new kid would bother Josie, but considering she is dating Landon now, and hadn’t even met the new girl yet, Josie didn’t really mind. It feels good to just laugh with her sister about a silly crush after everything that has happened to them in the past year.

“She’s pretty short, I guess, but she’s also like really hot. The best part is she’s single and I’m pretty sure she also likes girls, so I’ve definitely got a chance, right? Not that many can resist my charms,” Lizzie rambles animated. “I’m hoping to catch her at dinner so I can get learn more about her. She’s pretty quiet.”

Josie continues to listen to her sister talk for a while, enjoying the how normal it all felt, occasionally interrupting to ask a question or point something out. After a long while, Josie reminds Lizzie of the homework she’s abandoned in favor of daydreaming about a girl she barely knows. With some resistance, Josie manages to convince Lizzie to work on her homework and Josie starts to work on her own. They actually do to get quite a bit done before it is time for dinner, with Lizzie only interrupting every five minutes to wonder something out loud about Hope.

After Hope has loaded her plate up with a concerning amount of food, she hesitates at the other end of the food line. She used to eat by herself in her room, even though she wasn’t supposed to. She thinks that Dr. Saltzman used to say something about ants, but she hadn’t really been listening. Hope is planning keep her usual routine, when Lizzie spots her and, upon seeing her hesitation, waves her over to where her and sister are sitting. Hope knows there’s no escape now and walks over.

“Hope, hi!” Lizzie greets brightly. “I see you’re still trying to break an eating record,” LIzzie teases lightly, gesturing at Hope’s overflowing plate of food.

“Oh, yeah,” Hope says with a small self-conscious laugh. It is going to be hard for her to get used to Lizzie not being mean to her. 

Hope nervously takes a seat across from the twins. She can’t bring herself to meet Josie’s curious, unknowing gaze. She had gotten used to a Lizzie that didn’t know her at all just enough to get through the day, but having to face Josie was twice the obstacle.

“I’m Josie, Lizzie’s sister,” Josie says with a polite smile.

Hope steels herself and meets Josie’s gaze. “I’m Hope,” She says with a strained smile before turning to her food in an attempt to avoid more interaction. Plus, the faster she eats the faster she can leave.

“So, Hope, how was the rest of your first day?” Lizzie asks.

It takes Hope a second to finish chewing before she can answer, which thankfully gives her time to think of a decent enough response. “It was fine. They got my schedule worked out.”

“Oh, do you have it with you?”

Hope digs around in her pocket for a moment and pulls out a rumpled, folded piece of paper. She looks a little embarrassed as she hands it over to Lizzie. Only once Lizzie starts unfolding it though, does Hope realize that there is a little bit of cyclops blood on the corner from when it fell out of her pocket while she had been tracking the creature. Hope tenses instantly, her brain racing to think of a good explanation.

But Lizzie’s eyes scan the schedule without ever lingering on the purple stain in one corner. She nods in approval and passes the paper back to Hope, who shoves it quickly back into her pocket.

“We’ve got a few classes together,” Lizzie says, “gym, supernatural history, and you’ve got defensive spells with me and Josie. You’ve also got English with Landon.” Lizzie then turns to her sister, “Speaking of knock-off Elijah Wood, where is your boyfriend, Jo?”

Hope hadn’t noticed that Landon wasn’t there until Lizzie mentioned it. She had been trying to put him out of her mind as much as possible, considering every time she thought about him her heart hurt and she felt the urge to go find him and tell him everything. Hope tries to push down that rising feeling, choosing instead to focus on Lizzie’s insult, which would normally be self-explanatory but instead leaves her confused.

“Oh, he’s hanging out with Raf tonight,” Josie answers, simply.

“Wait, who’s Elijah Wood?” Hope interjects, partially out of curiosity, partially so that she can steer the conversation away from talking about Landon.

Lizzie’s eyes go a little wide and she suddenly looks nervous. “Oh, um, he’s the actor who plays Frodo in the Lord of the Rings movies,” Lizzie says haltingly, clearly reluctant to explain.

It clicks in Hope’s head after a moment, remembering all the times Lizzie called Landon a hobbit. “Oh, I get it, because he’s like a hobbit?” Hope says uncertainly.

“Yeah,” Lizzie says, looking embarrassed by having made the reference.

To Lizzie’s side, Josie smirks at the interaction. “You know, Lizzie, for someone who decrys all things nerdy, you sure do know a lot about Lord of the Rings,” Josie teases.

Lizzie instantly turns to glare at her sister, elbowing her in the side. “Shut up,” Lizzie hisses under her breath, before turning back to Hope with a strained smile. “Sorry, our dad’s kind of a nerd.”

Josie snorts at Lizzie’s assertion. “Oh, yeah, sure, Liz,” Josie says sarcastically. “And who’s the tallest hobbit?”

“Pippin, obviously,” Lizzie says automatically, before realizing her mistake. “I mean, how would I know?”

Josie laughs at her sister’s embarrassment, earning herself another elbow to the ribs. Hope herself, while mostly confused as to what they are talking about, has to suppress her own laugh at Lizzie’s admittedly adorable behavior.

“ _ Anyways _ , I’m sure Hope doesn’t care about some silly nerd movies that everyone’s dad makes them watch,” Lizzie says with another nervous smile in Hope’s direction.

“Actually, I’ve never seen the Lord of the Rings movies,” Hope interjects, ignoring the unfortunate way Lizzie’s comment reminds her of her own father, “I always thought they sounded interesting, though.”

“Wait, really?” Lizzie says, probably a little too loudly.

“Oh, well, you know, Hope, Lizzie has the movies, you guys could get together and watch them some night,” Josie suggests, in a falsely innocent tone.

“ _ Jo _ ,” Lizzie hisses at her sister, realizing what she was doing.

“Oh, that sounds cool. If you want to?” Hope says. Hope has to admit that the idea of spending more time with Lizzie is appealing and watching a movie together sounds like the perfect activity, relaxing and relatively little talking so Hope would had fewer chances to accidentally say something she shouldn’t know. Plus she needs something to do, otherwise she might do something stupid like go find Landon.

Lizzie’s head perks up at Hope’s response. “Yeah, of course I’d want to! I mean the movies are actually really good. I have both the original and the extended edition. I also have the hobbit movies, but that’s a whole different problem.”

As Lizzie starts to ramble, Hope just chuckles and continues to eat. Hope stays at the table a while after her food is gone, which is certainly not what she had planned on doing, but, with the excited light in Lizzie’s eyes as she talked, Hope can’t imagine interrupting her.

Eventually, the girls part ways, with the agreed plan for Lizzie to show Hope the first Lord of the Rings movie that coming Friday. Lizzie can’t help but practically buzz with anticipation.

“So, what do you think?” Lizzie asks Josie as they walk back to their dorm. “Isn’t she cute? And she’s willing to watch LotR with me!”

“Yeah, she seems nice,” Josie says, although the encounter had left her with a weird feeling in the pit of her stomach. “What was that weird stain on her schedule, though?”

“Oh, you noticed that too. It smelled rancid.” Lizzie scrunched her face in disgust. “That’s the other thing about Hope I noticed. I’m pretty sure she’s hiding something. I was trying to ask her questions about herself all this morning and she always managed to avoid giving me a real answer.”

“Oh, that’s weird.”

“Yeah, it kind of gives her this mysterious quality,” Lizzie says, clearly finding it attractive.

“Well, I mean we should be careful though. Dad called me today to say that there was a monster in town. He brought it down, but he said it might mean that Malivore isn’t really dead.”

“Ugh, I should’ve known better than to trust that your boyfriend could actually do anything right,” Lizzie groans. “Wait, do you think Hope might be a monster?” Lizzie asks suddenly.

“I don’t know, but we shouldn’t rule it out.”

“Oh God, I don’t want to end up accidentally dating a troll or something,” Lizzie laments.

Josie looks like she wants to point out that Lizzie doesn’t have to date Hope, or that maybe she shouldn’t until they figure out why she’s acting suspicious, but she decides against it. Josie doesn’t want to have to disappoint her sister for no reason. It’s not likely that Hope is a monster, even if Josie’s instinct is telling her not to trust the new girl.

The girls get ready for bed without saying much else. They say goodnight to each other before Lizzie turns the light off. Josie falls asleep quickly, but Lizzie finds herself, tossing and turning for a while. After about an hour or so, she groans into her pillow and gets up. She thinks grabbing a snack might help her sleep, considering that she doesn’t really remember eating much at dinner. She had been a little too busy talking to Hope.

Lizzie makes her way down the dark, silent halls toward the kitchen. She is distracted about half way there when she hears sounds coming from the gym. She goes to investigate, not knowing who would be up at this hour. Normally, Lizzie might expect Rafael, but he was still trapped as a wolf, so definitely not him.

Lizzie rounds the corner to the gym and stops right in the doorway from what she sees. Lizzie’s tried brain only manages to process the scene in fragments. Hope is in the gym. Hope is in a sports bra and a pair of well fitting leggings. Hope is working up a hell of a sweat by working the punching bag. And yeah, maybe Lizzie should’ve noticed that Hope is sending the punching bag swinging with more force than even your above average witch should be capable of, but she is a little more focused on the sharp lines of Hope’s back muscles to care much about that.

Lizzie watches Hope work the bag for way too long, her eyes exploring every inch of the other girl’s body. Eventually, she does break out of her trance and say something, albeit reluctantly.

“So, you found the gym alright, I guess I must be a pretty good tour guide,” Lizzie says, a playful smirk on her lips.

Hope starts, immediately spinning around with a slight look of panic on her face. She quickly steadies the punching bag and tries to school her features in to something more neutral.

“Um, yeah, I guess so,” Hope says, moving off to the side to grab her towel and wipe away some sweat. She is suddenly aware that she is not really wearing a lot of clothes, but it’s just Lizzie… right?

Lizzie watches the motion with much interest. “So, what’re you doing up? Or do you just usually get your work outs in at 11 o’clock at night?” She asks, and she’s trying to sound flirty, but from Hope’s lack of her desired reaction, she doesn’t think it’s working.

Hope gives a small laugh. “No, I couldn’t really sleep, new place and all,” Hope says, feeling her guilt build up at all the half-truths and outright lies she’s been telling lately. “You?”

Hope’s eyes finally look up and meet Lizzie’s head on when she asks this, and there is an intensity there that Lizzie doesn’t understand. She writes it off as attraction, but if feels like more, like there’s some other connection there.

“I couldn’t get to sleep either,” Lizzie says with a shrug.

“Have you tried going up to the turret?” Hope asks, realizing too late that her suggestion is something she remembers Lizzie doing in the past to fall asleep and is something she should probably not know. “I mean, it looked pretty peaceful up there when you showed it to me earlier,” Hope says, awkwardly trying to fix her mistake.

Lizzie’s eyes widen a little. “Yeah, it is pretty nice up there,” Lizzie says softly and earnestly. “That’s actually one of my favorite places on campus.”

A warm feeling blooms in Hope’s chest from the response that she draws from Lizzie, but it is quickly quelled by a sick feeling in her stomach from the knowledge that it’s all from a lie. She knows things about Lizzie that she shouldn’t, and it feels wrong to use those to get closer to her, even if it’s not on purpose. And yet, Hope is surprised by how much she still wants to do just that.

“I’ll have to check it out some time,” Hope says, feeling kind of gross.

“Yeah, although, probably not tonight. You actually might want to go back to your dorm. I know I can get away with breaking curfew, but I don’t know if you can. And I’m not sure if I want to see what that new headmaster will cook up for punishment,” Lizzie says, a slight smile on her face as she turns to leave. “Have a good night, Hope.”

Hope watches Lizzie move toward the door. She’s not sure why she says what she says next, but it’s too late to stop once the words are falling from her lips.

“Lizzie, wait,” Hope says, suddenly. 

Lizzie stops and turns to face Hope again, a curious expression on her face. “Yeah?” 

Hope hesitates, but doesn’t succeed in stopping herself. “I just wanted to say, thank you. I didn’t really know what to expect in coming here, but you’ve been so friendly and welcoming and that’s just made everything so much easier. It really means a lot to me. And if you ever need anything or just want to talk, let me know.”

There is a soft look in Lizzie’s eyes as she nods. “Okay,” She says, not really knowing what else to say to the kind, but unexpected, gesture.

“Have a good night, Lizzie.” Hope calls after the girl as she continues on her way out the door.


	3. First day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hope's "first" day at the Salvatore school

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys. Sorry for going MIA for a while. Life kinda sucks sometimes. I'm graduating from high school in a few months if you're wondering why I fell off the map.  
> Anyways, I wrote this instead of scholarship essays. Enjoy!

The next morning, Hope wakes up with a whole basket of clothes left right inside her door. She would call them new clothes, but a good majority of them are just her clothes from before she jumped into Malivore, so not really new. Either way, she’s glad she has them. After taking a very long shower, Hope rummages around in the clothes for a bit, pulling out all of the familiar things. It seems like such a small thing, but just having her clothes back in her closet, makes it a little easier to face the day.

Once Hope has put everything she remembers owning back into her closet, she picks out an outfit for the day. She immediately goes and finds her favorite sweatshirt to wear. It’s just a little bit too big, so that the sleeves go over her hands and when she pulls the hood up, it practically covers her face. She sighs into the familiar comfort of the fabric before picking out a pair of jeans and putting on her boots.

Hope then goes and digs the schedule out of her pants pocket from yesterday. She tears off the corner with cyclops blood on it and throws the piece of soiled paper away. Then she goes over the classes, most of them familiar ones. She had been placed in all the basic level core classes to start, so she’ll be going over stuff she’s already learned, but it’s honestly the least of Hope’s problems, so she doesn’t really mind.

Hope tries to plan her best way around the day. Her first hour is math, which she wants to just skip entirely, but she knows she can’t because she is already planning on skipping gym second hour to avoid any unfortunate accidents that might come from a tribrid being in a witch gym class. She doesn’t think she should skip too many classes on her first day, and it’s much easier to think of an excuse for missing gym than any other class.

Continuing down the list, Hope has chemistry of magic third hour, english fourth hour, then lunch. After lunch, she had defensive spells, a free period, and supernatural history. Just looking at the classes, Hope feels overwhelmed. So many things can go wrong in just eight hours.

Hope keeps her head down as she makes her way to breakfast, hoping not to have to deal with anyone so early. Back when people could remember her, that tactic worked great. Hope had spent years mastering the art of looking unapproachable, but apparently Lizzie is immune to her abilities, as she walks right up to Hope with a bright smile on her face. Thankfully, Lizzie is also placing a cup of coffee into Hope’s hands, so maybe it’s not all bad.

“Morning, Hope. I figured you’d probably need a little help getting though today, considering we both had long nights,” Lizzie says, gesturing to the coffee that Hope has eagerly accepted. “I didn’t know how you like your coffee, so I just left it black. There’s some cream and sugar over there if you want.”

Hope doesn’t look where Lizzie is pointing, already face deep in her cup of coffee. Hope had never much cared for the taste of coffee, but it didn’t really matter what it tasted like, as long as it kept her upright.

When Hope brings the cup away from her face, having drunk about half of its contents, she sees Lizzie giving her a slightly amused expression as she drinks her own coffee at a more sensible rate.

“I guess you like it black then,” Lizzie says with a small chuckle.

“Oh, sorry, it’s, uh, it’s been a long morning,” Hope says, straining to sound awake and reasonable.

“Yeah, honestly, I was surprised to see you up. I thought you would sleep in.”

Hope internally groans as she realizes she definitely could’ve gotten away with skipping her first few classes by saying she overslept. “Yeah, I kinda wish I had,” Hope mumbles, staring down into her cup of coffee in regret.

Lizzie laughs lightly and clinks her cup playfully against Hope’s. “Well, you know there’s plenty more where that came from, so don’t be afraid to stock up. I know I do.”

Hope can’t help but smile a little, remembering Lizzie’s obscenely large travel cup that she would fill with to the brim coffee most mornings. “Thanks, Lizzie,” Hope says, her tired eyes meeting Lizzie’s own.

“Of course,” Lizzie says, glancing away as her cheeks tinted a light pink.

There is an awkward beat where Hope is unsure of what to do or say, and Lizzie is just kind of looking at her, and Hope suddenly feels nervous for some reason. Lizzie never made her nervous before. 

“Um, do you want to join me?” Hope says awkwardly, gesturing weakly to the tables.

“Oh! Well, I actually just finished eating, but I could sit with you if you want?” Lizzie says, a slightly conflicted expression on her face, like she had planned on doing something else.

“Oh, no, that’s okay. I was just wondering,” Hope responds quickly, really only having offered out of politeness. She isn’t really good with people in the morning, or in general.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. I’m used to sitting alone anyways,” Hope says, and regrets it immediately when Lizzie gives her a pitying look. “I’ll see you later though,” Hope says quickly, starting to move away before Lizzie can change her mind.

Lizzie quickly waves goodbye before heading out of the dining hall. As much as Lizzie wants to watch Hope eat her weight in food again, she has other plans for this morning. She determinedly makes her way to the library, notebook in hand. Inside the notebook, Lizzie has made a short list of all the odd things she has noticed about Hope since she arrived. Her intention, of course, being to find out if Hope is a malivore monster, and if so, what kind and whether or not it’s a deal breaker.

When Lizzie gets to the library, she quickly scans the shelves for a book cataloging monsters. She pulls the book out and heads over to one of the study tables. She lays the book and the notebook down in front of her and flips to the page of Strange Things about Hope, which is labeled as such with little hearts around Hope’s name.

She is about to set to work when she hears someone call her name from behind her. She quickly closes the notebook and spins around in her chair to see MG approaching her.

“Hey, Lizzie, I was actually just looking for you. I wanted to talk to you about something,” MG says, sounding nervous.

“Oh, yeah, sure. What’s up, MG?” Lizzie says, trying not to let her irritation at being interrupted show.

“Well, I was just wondering if you wanted to go on like a study date with me tonight?”

“Oh, sure, I still need to work on my english project. Where do you want to meet up?”

“Um, at the old mill?” MG says hesitantly, clearly worried about Lizzie’s response.

Lizzie freezes, knowing what people usually went to the old mill to do. “Um, sure. How about 6?” Lizzie says after a moment, thinking that she definitely needs to have a talk with MG. She figures it will be easier to let him down gently that night when they have more time to talk in a private space.

MG’s eyes light up at LIzzie’s response. “Okay, I’ll see you then!” He says excitedly before leaving.

Lizzie sighs. Now she has to think out what she’s going to say to MG, instead of finding out what types of creatures would produce a putrid purple substance like the one that had been on Hope’s schedule. Plus she only has ten minutes left before her first class. Lizzie picks her things back up and heads over to the desk to check out the monster catalogue.

Hope survives her math class, and really that’s all she can ask for. She keeps her head down and tries to pay attention, but she was struggling in math before she got malivored, so she doesn’t really succeed. Math seems so unnecessary considering the much bigger problems that they face on a daily basis. Hope never understood why she had to learn it, but she wasn’t able to talk Dr. Saltzman out of the math requirement, so she doubts she’d have much luck with the new headmaster.

At the end of class, the teacher pulls her to the side and lets her know that he will be flexible on assignments considering how hard it can be to transfer in and that if she has any trouble to not be afraid to ask for help. Hope mumbles her way out of the conversation and leaves as quickly as possible. She makes her way down to the dock to wait out her gym class. People never went looking for her there before, so she thinks she won’t be bothered now.

Hope spends the next hour staring into the water and thinking. She really wishes Dr. Saltzman was still at the school. She always used to go and see Dr. Saltzman whenever she needed to talk, or she would just hang out in his office if she really didn’t want to be in class. He never asked a lot of questions when she would skip, and even when she wanted to talk, he would usually just listen and silently do paperwork while she got whatever she needed off her chest.  
Hope’s hand reaches into her pocket and fiddles absently with the business card Dr. Saltzman gave her. Maybe she should call him to see if any new monsters have shown up yet.

Hope’s third hour is chemistry of magic, a class she’s already taken that is full of underclassmen she doesn’t know. It goes by relatively quickly, and the teacher seems to realize that Hope knows what she’s doing and doesn’t bother her. Overall, a bearable experience, unlike Hope’s next class, English.

Hope somehow ends up sitting right behind Landon in English. She had been hoping to sit on the opposite side of the room and pretend he didn’t exist, but clearly that plan is out the window, especially when he turns around and gives her that dumb, adorable smile.

“Hey, you’re the new kid, right? Josie mentioned I had english with you,” Landon says, before wincing, “Oh, sorry, that was weird. I forgot to tell you who I was, huh? I’m Landon. Josie probably mentioned me.” Landon offers his hand to Hope in greeting.

Hope feels like her heart is being wrenched out of her chest as she stares at Landon’s outstretched hand. His gaze is friendly, but blank and unknowing. His gesture is nice, but it just reminds Hope that she’s been forgotten by one of the people that she cares the most about in the world. Hope can feel the tears prickling at her eyes and she bites down hard on the inside of her cheek to keep them from falling.

“I’m Hope,” is all Hope manages, ignoring Landon’s handshake, knowing that holding his hand right now might just break her.

Landon awkwardly retracts his hand while trying to maintain his friendly smile. “Well, it’s nice to meet you Hope. I’m sure you’ll like it here. It’s the nicest place I’ve ever lived in my life.”

Hope only nods in response, not trusting her voice. Landon’s gaze lingers on her in a way that makes hope rise painfully in her chest. Maybe there is some part of Landon that remembers her, remembers what they were to each other. But then the teacher begins to instruct and Landon turns back around in his chair, and Hope bites down harder on the inside of her cheek to push those thoughts out of her head. At least she won’t have to look at his stupid face all hour.

When the bell rings at the end of fourth hour, Hope is out of the door before anyone else is out of their seats. She just needs to be somewhere that is not there. Hope hurries back to her room to grab a few things and change into a pair of leggings, before heading toward the gym. She’s vaguely aware that she is hungry and should probably eat, but it’s all background noise to the tightness in her chest and her need to hit something.

“Hey Lizzie,” Josie greets as Lizzie places her food down on the table across from where Josie is sitting next to Landon.

“Hey, Jo,” Lizzie murmurs distractedly, her head turning around as she seemed to search for something in the dining hall.

“Something wrong?” Josie asks when Lizzie doesn’t sit down at the table.

Lizzie finally turns to face her sister, her brow furrowed. “Have either of you guys seen Hope? I didn’t think she would be one to skip lunch.”

“The new girl? I haven’t seen her in here, but she was in english last hour. She left pretty quickly. Maybe she had something she needed to do?” Landon offers with his mouth full of food.

Lizzie recoils and gives Landon a disgusted look before actually considering his words.

“Maybe she just needed a break? The first day can be pretty hard,” Josie suggests with a shrug.

“Hm,” Lizzie hums thoughtfully for a moment before picking her tray of food back up. “I’ll be back, guys,” She says, hardly casting them a passing glance as she walks away.

Lizzie cuts back into the lunch line, to many people’s displeasure, and fills her tray up with more food, before heading off to find Hope. Lizzie figures the most obvious place to look would be Hope’s dorm, so she goes there first. She knocks a few times with no answer.

Her mind runs through the possibilities. The first option is that Hope simply isn’t there, but Lizzie knows it’s also possible that she is there and just doesn’t want to be bothered. After a moment’s deliberation, Lizzie decides that she can check back here after she’s looked other places, just in case it’s the latter possibility.

Lizzie is about half way to check the gym when she starts to feel a little silly. She can only imagine how she must look, running around with a tray full of food that is definitely cold by now. And why is she doing it again? Hope probably doesn’t even want to see her, otherwise she would have said something. So if Lizzie does actually find her right now, Hope will probably think she is some crazy stalker chick who is obsessed with her.

Lizzie skids to a self-conscious halt right in front of the gym doors, which are closed for some reason. Those doors are rarely closed, unless there’s a class in there. Lizzie furrows her brow at the doors, temporarily distracted from her previous worries. She steps closer and pushes on one door, but it doesn’t budge. She can feel a locking spell on them, which is definitely not supposed to be there.

Lizzie considers the doors for a moment before laying a hand on them and siphoning the spell. The doors swing inward with a slight creak as Lizzie pushes on them again. What she reveals is an oddly familiar scene. Hope is dressed in a well fitting tank top and leggings as she pummels the punching bag, her discarded sweatshirt on the floor next to her water bottle. 

And while the sight is just as distracting as it had been the previous night, Lizzie has a bit more of her wits about her this time, meaning that she has enough sense to notice how hard Hope seems to be hitting the punching bag. No one without some kind of supernatural strength could make the bag swing like that.

Lizzie clears her throat loudly over the sound of the punching bag rattling. Hope jumps at the sound and spins around to see Lizzie. There is a surprised, if not panicked, look on her face for a moment, before it relaxes a little into a small, nervous smile. And maybe Lizzie should be focusing on the weirdness in front of her, but she can’t help but be a little proud of that small smile. Hope does want to see her.

“Lizzie?” Hope says, clearly still startled by the suddenness of her interruption. She quickly steadies the bag next to her, before turning her attention to Lizzie.

Seeing the look on Hope’s face, Lizzie decides not to bring up the fact that Hope clearly has super strength, not wanting to scare the girl off. “Why am I not surprised to see you here?” Lizzie teases. “For future reference, we usually try to keep the doors open for ventilation reasons. Nobody wants the room where people sweat to start getting congested.”

“Oh, right, sorry about the locking spell. I just needed some time alone.”

Lizzie’s brow furrows there. She doesn’t think she’s ever told Hope that she was a siphoner, so she’s curious to know how Hope thinks she got into the room. Clearly, Hope knows more than she’s letting on. Lizzie makes a mental note to add this incident to the list in her notebook.

“I definitely get that. Although, I was a little concerned about you skipping a meal, considering how much you usually eat. Aren’t you hungry?”

“Oh, yeah, I am. I guess it just sort of slipped my mind.”

“Well, luckily for you, I have come prepared,” Lizzie says, walking forward, bandishing the tray of room temperature food. Lizzie can’t help but feel proud of the way that Hope’s eyes light up.

“Wow, thanks, Lizzie,” Hope says, taking the food a little too quickly. She freezes for a moment, looking at Lizzie, as if unsure of what to do next. “Do you want to sit with me?” Hope says finally, her voice nervous.

Lizzie feels some of her own insecurities melt away at the request. “Sure,” Lizzie says brightly.

Hope takes a seat against the back wall, the tray of food balanced precariously on her lap. Lizzie sits down next to her, probably a little closer than is necessary. Hope starts eating with her usual appetite and Lizzie sort of spaces out for a little bit, her mind running through all of the new, conflicting information she has just learned about Hope, trying to piece together a theory. After a long moment, Lizzie is broken out of her thoughts by Hope tapping her lightly on the leg to get her attention.

“You good there?” Hope asks, thankfully after she has swallowed her bite of food.

“Hm? Oh, yeah, just thinking,” Lizzie says, waving a hand dismissively. “What about you? Are you okay?”

Hope’s first instinct is to lie, of course, and that’s not just because of all of the things she can’t say because of Malivore. She never would’ve showed Lizzie weakness before, knowing she would only use it against her. But now, Hope stops herself from lying, and really considers how much of the truth she can say without giving herself away.

“I, um. You know what, I actually don’t really know. Sometimes it feels like there are just so many things all happening at once and I feel like they’re all going to swallow me up,” Hope says, surprised by how good if feels to say it out loud. A small part of her is still afraid that Lizzie will mock her for it, but it’s too late now anyways.

Lizzie nods understandingly. “I know what you mean. But, hey, as much as it is hard to believe, it gets better,” Lizzie says seriously. Then she adds more jokingly, “I mean, we’re watching Lord of the Rings on Friday. It doesn’t get better than that.”

Hope laughs at that and she can feel some of the tension leave her chest. She pushes her food around the tray absently for a moment, careful not to push any into the small portion of blueberries that lays segregated off to the side. It’s not that Hope doesn’t like blueberries, they are fine, but Hope knows that they are one of Lizzie’s favorites, and she’s trying to find the best way to offer them to her. Hope’s not quite sure why she’s over thinking it so much. Maybe she just doesn’t want to mess up what they have right now, not sure how she would get through this without Lizzie.

When Hope finally looks up from her food, she finds Lizzie watching her thoughtfully. “Um, do you want any of these?” Hope asks, not sure why her voice sounds so nervous.

Lizzie blinks a few times, breaking out of her thoughts, before her eyes land on the fruit that Hope has saved for her. “Oh! Yes, thank you. I love blueberries. How did you know?” Lizzie says, her eyes bright as she reaches to grab a few.

Hope’s brain takes a second to buffer as she remembers that she’s not supposed to know what Lizzie’s favorite foods are. To be fair, if she thinks about it, Hope is a little surprised that she even knows that to begin with. It’s not like Hope and Lizzie used to be friends before she was forgotten. Hope shakes the thought away and focuses back on Lizzie.

“Just a feeling, I guess,” Hope says with a noncommittal shrug. She hates how those words sound, knowing how much of a lie it is.

Lizzie gives Hope a bright smile, a light blush on her cheeks.

They sit there for the rest of lunch. Lizzie asks Hope about her classes, and Hope tells the truth, mostly that she was bored and tired, until they get to English.

“So I take it you met Landon,” Lizzie says with a roll of her eyes.

Hope feels her chest tighten at his name. She only nods in response, not trusting her voice.

“God, I have no idea what Josie sees in that overgrown bird,” Lizzie says, disdain clear in her voice. “Like I know, Josie is still trying to get over satan, but didn’t think her standards would drop that low.”

Hope almost wants to laugh at the absurd disdain in Lizzie’s voice. She remembers Lizzie not liking Landon, but this is a little ridiculous. It takes Hope a second to realize that there are quite a few things in what Lizzie said that Hope shouldn’t understand. God, this really is harder than she thought it would be.

“Satan?” Hope asks awkwardly, choosing to talk about Penelope rather than Landon.

“Oh, yeah. My sister’s ex-girlfriend was the literal devil, but she left at the end of last year, so thankfully, we don’t have to deal with her anymore. I think Josie is still trying to get over her though, I can’t think of any other reason she would go out with Landon.”

Hope feels an unexpected pang in her chest in hearing about Penelope. Sure, Hope wasn’t really friends with Penelope, acquaintances at best, but the idea that Penelope is off in Belgium, never having known that Hope existed at all, kind of hurts. It hurts in ways that Hope didn’t expect it to. Thankfully, Hope is spared from having to provide a reasonable reaction because the end of lunch bell rings.

“Oh, shoot, we better get to defensive spells,” Lizzie says getting to her feet.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Alright, we’re going to practice this spell. I want everyone to pair up and try it out a few times. Please be careful and for goddess’s sake, enunciate your syllables,” The teacher says, moving to her desk to finish up some paper work.
> 
> Lizzie turns to Hope immediately. “Do you want to be my partner, Hope?” She asks, eyes bright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeet

Lizzie and Hope manage to not be late for their next class, even if they may have had to run through the last few hallways. They are laughing breathlessly as they take their seats, Lizzie sitting down next to Josie and Hope taking the seat next to Lizzie. The desks in the classroom are set up in a circle to demonstrate, as their teacher likes to say, the cooperative nature of magic. Hope remembers trying to sit as far away from Lizzie and Josie as possible, back before Malivore ever reared its ugly head, which she supposes was a little against idea trying to be convened.

“Afternoon, class,” The teacher greets. “Today, we are going to start our unit on human alteration spells. Remember, these types of spells are difficult to cast, and very intrusive, so you must be careful not to cast them wrong, as there can be extreme consequences to doing one incorrectly. When in danger, these should be you last resort. We will start with a basic movement freezing spell today.” The teacher turns to write the words for the spell on the board.

Once the teacher turns her back, Josie whispers to her sister. “ _So, how did it go with Hope_?” Josie asks, quiet enough that Hope wouldn’t have been able to hear her if Hope didn’t have supernatural hearing.

Hope can’t help but glance at the twins, entirely too aware that the girl’s are talking about her. Josie’s gaze flicks over to Hope, her expression wary and vaguely hostile, when she notices the new girl looking. Hope quickly looks back up at the board.

Lizzie, not noticing Hope and Josie’s silent exchange, answers her sister with a slightly smug smile. “ _Good, I found her in the gym, and, God, she looks so good in work out clothes_ ,” Lizzie whispers suggestively.

Hope unintentionally shoots up in her chair, knees banging against the underside of her desk with a loud crash. Her face is red as several people turn to her with questioning looks, including the teacher. Hope is quite sure why she is so surprised that Lizzie was checking her out. Hope knows that Lizzie is into girls and that she isn’t particularly shy about finding people attractive. Hope just never imagined Lizzie saying something like that about her.

“Oh, Hope, I almost forgot,” The teacher says, when their eyes land on Hope. “Everybody, we have a new student today. Would you like to introduce yourself?”

Hope nods slowly, desperately trying to school her features. She stands up awkwardly, her hands fidgeting in front of her. “Um, sure. I’m Hope Marshall,” Hope says haltingly.

“Do you want to tell us a little about yourself? Like, where did you come from?” The teacher prompted.

Hope freezes at the questions. She racks her brain quickly to think of a good lie, but her mind is painfully blank. She swallows thickly when she remembers everyone staring at her and starts to answer, hoping that what ever comes out will be okay. “Um, well, I-I mean. My family is from New Orleans, mostly, but I’ve moved around a lot, so…”

“Okay, thank you, Hope. We’re glad to have you,” The teacher says.

Hope sits back down with a sigh. She glances over at Josie and Lizzie after a moment. Lizzie is giving her an apologetic look probably about her having talk in front of the class like that. Josie has narrowed her eyes at Hope, clearly finding something suspicious about how long it took Hope to answer a simple question. Hope turns her attention back to the teacher, wanting to focus on literally anything other than how terrible her whole life is turning out right now.

“Alright, we’re going to practice this spell. I want everyone to pair up and try it out a few times. Please be careful and for goddess’s sake, enunciate your syllables,” The teacher says, moving to her desk to finish up some paper work.

Lizzie turns to Hope immediately. “Do you want to be my partner, Hope?” She asks, eyes bright.

Hope self consciously glances at Josie, who is looking at Hope with some distaste. “Um, sure, Lizzie,” Hope says uncertainly.

“Awesome, do you want to go first? I heard that your magic test scores are like some child prodigy stuff, so I’m sure you won’t have too much trouble,” Lizzie says.

Hope nods nervously, not because of the spell, she could do that spell in her sleep, but because of how closely Lizzie is watching her. Hope takes a deep breath to calm her nerves before reciting the spell carefully, extending a hand in Lizzie’s direction.

Lizzie waits a second before attempting to move. When she finds her body immoble, she smiles encouragingly and says, “It worked! Nice!”

Hope smiles a little shyly before releasing the spell.

“Okay, my turn,” Lizzie says, offering a hand to Hope palm up.

Hope places her hand in Lizzie’s without thinking. Lizzie’s hand is a little cold and very soft, where as Hope’s is rough and kinda sweaty. Hope grows a little nervous, especially when she doesn’t feel Lizzie siphoning right away. Hope freezes, quickly realizing her mistake. She rips her hand out of Lizzie’s grasp quickly, swearing internally.

Lizzie looks at Hope for a moment, brow furrowed in confusion. Lizzie isn’t sure whether to assume that Hope inexplicably knows that she’s a siphoner without Lizzie having told her, or if it’s just as possible that Hope just thought Lizzie wanted to hold hands and then second guessed herself, which would be adorable. By the blush growing on Hope’s face, Lizzie feels herself leaning toward the latter explanation.

Lizzie lets out a light laugh. “Hope, sweetie, as much as I’d love to hold your hand, I actually need a magic source. I’m a siphoner witch, so I don’t have magic of my own. I just need to borrow a little of yours.”

Hope’s face goes through a series of unreadable expressions before landing on a nervous smile. Hope offers her hand to Lizzie again with a slight nod.

Lizzie can’t help but smile smugly at Hope’s nerves. She’s kind of adorable when she’s nervous. Lizzie takes Hope’s hand once again, getting distracted for a moment by how strong Hope’s grip feels. Lizzie clears her throat to get herself to focus and starts siphoning.

Lizzie practically gets the breath knocked out of her once she starts siphoning. She is plunged head first into a power unlike any she’s ever felt before, and yet it feels vaguely familiar. The feeling of such intense magic washing over her is overwhelming and Lizzie grips Hope’s hand tighter to anchor herself.

Hope watches Lizzie siphon with a worried expression. The feeling is familiar and oddly relaxing for Hope. It takes a moment for Lizzie to stop siphoning, her eyes closed and her breathing a little off. Once she has finished siphoning, she holds onto Hope’s hand a little longer, before finally letting go. Lizzie opens her eyes slowly to reveal a dazed expression.

“Woah,” Lizzie breathes out softly as she takes a second to compose herself.

Hope looks at Lizzie with a worried expression. “You okay?”

Lizzie blinks a few times before answering. “Yeah, I’m good,” Lizzie says, seemingly not wanting to elaborate on her reaction. “Okay, let’s give this spell a try then.”

Hope nods and watches as Lizzie recites the words off the board. Something doesn’t quite sound right the first time and Hope finds herself still able to move. “I think you need to put more emphasis on the third syllable on that last word. Try again?” Hope says, her voice gently encouraging.

Lizzie nods, brow furrowing in concentration as she carefully enunciates the words again. She feels Hope’s magic flow through her as she casts the spell, and it is a feeling unlike anything else. The magic is so strong, and boundless, and forceful, and it feels so familiar running through Lizzie’s body. It has an odd calming effect on Lizzie, makes her feel more in control than she has in a long time.

Hope attempts to move and finds her body frozen. A smile breaks out on her face. “Nice job!” Hope says, from her awkward frozen position.

Lizzie smiles brightly and claps her hands together excitedly. “Alright! Now we just have do it a few more times to make sure we’ve got it,” Lizzie says, releasing the spell on Hope so they can switch roles.

Lizzie doesn’t need to siphon again for the rest of the class, despite casting the spell upwards of twenty times. Even when she leaves class, waving good by to Hope as she heads toward her English class with Josie, Lizzie can still feel some of Hope’s magic flowing through her, making her feel sort of giddy. Once she arrives at her next class, she pulls out her notebook and writes down “ _intense magic (familiar???)_ ” at the bottom of the weird things about Hope list, which is getting filled up much faster than she thought it would.

After English, Lizzie practically skips to supernatural history, excited to see Hope again, only to find her absent from the class. Lizzie feels her heart sink in disappointment. She struggles to pay attention to the rest of class, her mind racing with where Hope could be, and whether or not she was okay. She even briefly considers skipping out on class to go look for Hope again, but she thinks better of it.

It is quite unfortunate that Lizzie isn’t paying attention, though, because the teacher is talking about them starting a month long project where groups will each choose an Original to study and analyse, ending in a presentation and a 5 page paper summarizing the impact that person had on history. If Lizzie had been paying attention, she would have known that she had been paired up in a group with MG, Kaleb and the new girl to research Klaus Mikaelson.

Hope leaves defensive spells never having been more happy to have a free period in her life. Being in a class with Josie and Lizzie was more exhausting than Hope really could’ve imagined. She needs to get away from the school, from all the little things that make her feel out of place and remind her of everything she’s lost. She needs a distraction, a problem she knows how to solve.

Hope is about halfway to her dorm, planning to just hole up there and ignore her problems for the next hour, when her hand reaches into her pocket and fiddles with Dr. Saltzman’s card again. She could just check in with him to see if any monsters have shown up. He’d probably be in his office around this time of the day. Hope should probably call him first, but he probably wouldn’t mind if she just dropped by.

It doesn’t take long for Hope to sneak off of campus again. She tells herself she won’t be gone long. Although if she just so happened to miss supernatural history, one of her least favorite classes in the world, it wouldn’t be a huge loss. She makes her way into town and over to the high school, continuing to rationalize along the way.

It’s easy for Hope to get into Mystic Falls High, nobody even gives her a second look as she makes her way to Dr. Saltzman’s office. She stands uncertainly in front of the door for a moment, reconsidering whether this is a good idea or not. She takes a deep breath and knocks twice.

“Come in,” Dr. Saltzman’s voice calls from inside.

Hope slowly opens the door and hesitantly steps into the office. Alaric raises his head from his paper work, looking vaguely surprised when he sees Hope.

“Hope, hi,” Dr. Saltzman says, somewhat uncertainly.

“Hi, Dr. Saltzman,” Hope says, stepping a little further into the office and closing the door behind her.

“What can I help you with?” Dr. Saltzman asks, placing his pencil down on the desk to give Hope his full attention.

“Oh, I just wanted to check in, see if a new monster has shown up yet. Based on what you told me about Malivore, I can’t imagine it will be long,” Hope says haltingly, rubbing the back of her neck self consciously. Her chest feels tight just being around Dr. Saltzman, and she absolutely hates it.

“It’s been clear so far, but I’m keeping an eye out,” Alaric answers, watching Hope carefully.

“Oh, okay,” Hope says, awkwardly shifting her weight, uncertain if she should just leave now.

“How are you settling in at the school?” Alaric asks after a moment.

“Good,” Hope answers, her heart aching a little at the care in Dr. Saltzman’s voice. Hope hesitates before walking forward to take a seat across from Dr. Saltzman’s desk.

“That’s good, Hope. I’m glad. Have you made any friends?” Alaric continues, seeing that, perhaps, Hope could use someone to talk to.

“Oh, um, maybe,” Hope mumbles, freezing up a little bit at how familiar that particular conversation is. “Lizzie showed me around and she’s been really friendly.”

Dr. Saltzman smiles fondly at that, but the look in his eyes is melancholic. “Oh, yeah, that’s good. How is she doing?”

Hope is not sure how to answer this at first. Dr. Saltzman had mentioned while they were tracking the cyclops that he had gotten fired from the Salvatore school and that it had put some strain on his relationship with his daughters, so Hope isn’t really surprised that Dr. Saltzman asks this. At the same time though, Hope is really sure how much she is supposed to know or be able to say in this situation. However, the almost helpless look in Dr. Saltzman’s eyes is enough to convince Hope to say a little more than she probably should.

“Well, um, Lizzie said that she was having some trouble adjusting to all changes this year,” Hope starts, knowing full well Lizzie had not told her anything of the sort. After having grown up with Lizzie, Hope can read the differences in her behavior, even in the short time they’ve had together, so it’s not that the words don’t ring true, but that they feel almost like an invasion of privacy.

“She said that it’s been hard to get her footing after the summer, that the school feels oddly unfamiliar right now despite the fact that she’s lived here practically all of her life. But, I think she is still feeling optimistic. I think that she thinks that she can still make this a good year.” Hope says thoughtfully, wondering if she is reading too much into her observations of Lizzie in the last couple of days.

Dr. Saltzman’s expression is hard to read, but the melancholy in his eyes has faded. “That’s good to hear, thank you,” He says with a grateful nod.

“Of course,” Hope says, feeling more uncomfortable than before. It feels wrong to talk about Lizzie behind her back, especially when she’s not supposed to know that type of stuff about her.

Dr. Saltzman clears his throat after a moment. “Speaking of the future, Hope, I know I’ve said this before, but, really, if you ever need anything, or anything happens, don’t be afraid to call me.”

Hope pauses, realizing a slight problem with that plan. “I actually don’t have a cell phone. I’d only be able to call you while I’m at the school.”

“Oh,” Dr. Saltzman says, stopping to think for a moment. “Well that would pose a bit of a problem.”

“How about this?” He asks, pulling out some money from his pocket. “There is a store down on 6th where you can get a burner cell phone. That way, you can can keep me up to date about what’s going on at the school, and I can make sure that you know as soon as a new monster appears, so we can both be prepared for whatever it is we’ll have to face.”

Hope considers the money that Dr. Saltzman is offering her for a moment. She’s not exactly sure how she feels about this idea, but it certainly would make things easier, considering they have no idea what Malivore will throw at them next. It also makes Hope wonder how bad things are with the twins that Dr. Saltzman doesn’t trust them to tell him what’s going on at the school.

“Okay,” Hope says, standing up to take the money from Dr. Saltzman’s hand. It feels weird. This whole thing feels weird.

“Here, I’ll give you the address of the place. It’s a bit of a walk, so I apologize for that. I’d drive you, but I can’t exactly leave in the middle of the school day,” Dr. Saltzman says with a slight apologetic laugh. He scribbles down the address on one of his business cards and hands it to Hope. “And once you get the phone, you can just send me a text, so I’ll have the number. Sound good?”

“Yep,” Hope says, with a sharp nod. She takes the card and immediately spins around to leave. She isn’t sure if he says anything more to her, because she is out the door before he has a chance.

The tightness in Hope’s chest doesn’t start to fade until she is a long ways away from the high school. By the time she reaches the store she’s looking for though, the only thing Hope is feeling is tired. Her anxious, late night work out session is proving to have consequences that not even copious amounts of caffeine can solve.

Hope is able to get the burner phone with out any questions, which makes sense considering the store doesn’t look like the most reputable establishment. She’s in and out and on her way back to the school within five minutes. When she gets back to the school, she’s not disappointed at all to find out that she’s completely missed her seventh hour.

With the school day thankfully done and over with, Hope heads back to her room. She activates the burner phone and sends Dr. Saltzman a quick message before flopping down on her bed and promptly falling asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Did you sleep through dinner, too, or are you just having an after dinner snack?” Lizzie teases, breaking Hope out of her thoughts. 
> 
> Hope chuckles, her face feeling warm. “Um, actually, when I woke up I just didn’t want to have to deal with people, so I waited to eat,” Hope says, appeasing with her conscience by telling a half-truth.
> 
> “Oh, well, I was coming to eat, but I can just take something back to my room, if you want to be alone,” Lizzie says, a slight disappointment in her voice.
> 
> “No, that’s okay,” Hope says, instantly. “You don’t count as people-- Wait, uh no, that’s not what I meant. I just mean that I was talking about other people, you know the, um…” Hope trails off, realizing that she is only digging herself deeper.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Howdy!  
> Wow, it's been a while since I updated this one. oof.  
> This quarantine is really doing a number on my mental health, so it's been rough. On the bright side, longer chapter to make up for how long it took me to update.  
> Thanks to everyone who comments! I love reading them and I appreciate every one!  
> Enjoy!

Lizzie knows she should be working on her homework right now. She should really bring up her english project so that she’s ready get to work as soon as MG gets there, but instead she has a monster manual spread across her lap and her face buried in a chapter about mountain trolls, a creature that sounds wholly unpleasant. Not even the best illusion spells could make one of those beasts look anything like Hope. Lizzie opens up her notebook and crosses mountain troll off a list of possible monsters before flipping back to the index to search for the next item on the list.

Lizzie is so engrossed in her investigation that she doesn’t notice MG come in until he is already sitting beside her.

“Hey, whatcha you working on?” MG says, awkwardly trying to sound nonchalant as he tries to look over her shoulder.

Lizzie starts, immediately snapping the book closed and pushing it off her lap. “Nothing,” Lizzie says quickly, unable to stop herself from looking as conspicuous as she feels.

“Okay,” MG says slowly, giving Lizzie a confused look. “You ready to get to work then?” MG says, brushing off Lizzie’s odd response and opening up his laptop.

“Yep, sure,” Lizzie says, much too awkwardly, grabbing her own laptop and opening it up.

“How far are you right now? I’m working on slides for my theme analysis.”

Lizzie knows she should just do her work and try to forget about Hope for at least a few hours, but she can’t. She needs to talk about this with someone, and Josie is too busy hanging out with Landon. And maybe this way she can let MG down gently and without actually having to say that she doesn’t like him.

Lizzie abruptly closes her laptop and turns toward MG. “Actually, there’s something else that I was hoping you could help me with.”  
MG turns to face Lizzie, a hopeful look in his eyes that makes Lizzie cringe at her choice of words. “Of course, Lizzie. I’m always happy to help you,” MG says brightly.

Lizzie ignores the slight burst of guilt that flares in her chest. It’s not like she’s trying to lead him on, she just doesn’t want to hurt him.

“Okay, you know about that new girl, Hope?” Lizzie asks.

MG’s brow furrows. “Um, yeah, the one that’s in our supernatural history group, that I haven’t actually met yet because she skipped?”

“Yeah. Anyways, I really want to ask her out, but she’s kind of suspicious and clearly hiding something, and I don’t want to like accidently ask out the next Malivore monster or whatever, so I’m trying to figure out what she could be.”

MG manages to look defeated, stunned, and confused all at the same time. “Ah, I see, you’re crushing on the new kid already,” He says, trying to mask his disappointment.

Lizzie tries to ignore the dejected look on her friend’s face. “Well, yeah, I mean, have you seen her?”

“No, actually, because she skipped class,” MG says, his tone a little bitter.

“Well, she’s super hot, but also super weird. I made a whole list of weird stuff about her so I could try and figure it out,” Lizzie says, picking up her notebook and handing it to MG.

MG takes it hesitantly and reads some of it over, “Dodgy about personal questions? Eats a lot? Lizzie, don’t you think you’re reading into this a little? These might be a little weird, but that doesn’t make her a possible monster.”

Lizzie rolls her eyes. “Seriously, MG? Just keep reading,” Lizzie says, crossing her arms over her chest as she starts to feel a little self-conscious.

MG gives her one more wary look before silently reading the rest of the list. His skeptical expression slowly slips away as he reads, becoming more worried. “Are you sure about all of this stuff? This could be really serious.”

Lizzie rolls her eyes again. Of course she knows it’s serious that’s why she’s trying to figure it out. “Yes, I’m sure, but in case you were wondering, all of the things with a red star next to them are ones that more uncertain, like there could be another explanation or something could’ve been miscommunicated.”

“Wow, this is actually really thorough,” MG says, reading the list again.

“Of course, this is serious, MG. I _really_ like her. I mean, she agreed to watch Lord of the Rings with me. I’ve got to figure out what kind of monster she is to know if it’s a deal breaker or not.”

MG stares at her with wide eyes for a moment, his mouth frozen half open.

Lizzie rolls her eyes _again_. “And also to make sure she doesn’t endanger the school, that goes without saying, obviously,” Lizzie says, irritated. Who did MG take her for, some blonde bimbo? Everyone knows she’s the whole package, brains and looks.

MG has the decency to look a little embarrassed for assuming Lizzie’s priorities. “You know, I’d watch Lord of the Rings with you,” He says shyly.

“Yeah, but you don’t like Sam, who is objectively the best character in the history of cinema, and you still defend the hobbit movies after _seeing_ them, so what’s even the point.”

MG looks like he wants to argue, but with the look that Lizzie gives him, he knows that he would lose. “Anyways, have you actually figured anything out yet?” MG asks, clearly trying to move the subject away from Lizzie dunking on him.

“Well, so far I’ve figured out that she’s probably not a troll of any kind, because all of those things are big and smelly and ugly as hell, and Hope is definitely none of those things. I have a list of possibilities on the next page, if you want to look.”

MG silently flips the page and scans the page with a thoughtful, if still concerned expression. After a moment he hands the notebook back to Lizzie. “Okay, how can I help?” He says with a slightly strained smile.

“I’m thinking of making an excel spreadsheet to organize the possibilities, I can share it with you if you want to help with that, otherwise I need to pick up a few more books from the staff library.”

“Whatever you need me to do.”

Lizzie feels a jab of guilt in her chest again. Maybe she should actually talk to MG about how she doesn’t think of him that way. However, before Lizzie gets a chance, Josie runs into the old mill with a distressed look on her face. 

Josie’s eyes immediately find MG. “MG, we need your help, I’ll explain on the way.”

MG jumps to his feet and Lizzie follows suit as they both hurry to follow Josie back into the woods.

When Hope wakes up from her accidental afternoon nap, the sun is already setting on the horizon, the woods outside her window bathed in pink and orange shades. Hope wishes that she still had her painting supplies so she could capture the moment. Maybe she could talk to Lizzie about that.

After a few minutes of trying to decide whether she should go eat, do homework, or just go back to sleep, Hope finds herself pacing around her room. Hope takes a deep breath and stills in her step to examine herself. She’s restless, anxious, energized, and irritable, and it only takes a second for her to realize that she knows this odd mix of feelings, she knows it well. She needs to wolf out.

Hope groans out loud at the realization, casting a wary glance out her window. It’s hardly dark outside, so she’d be taking a big risk if she went out now. But then again, she knows the parts of the forest that people don’t go. Plus, with Malivore back, people will be even less likely to go off into the woods for fear of discovering the next monster.

Hope lets out a low growl as she goes to leave her room, knowing that she’s more likely to fuck up later if she doesn’t let this energy out. She makes her way out to the parts of the woods she knows are the least likely to be occupied and starts to undress, putting her clothes in the crook of a tree where she can find them later.

Hope transforms quickly, not wanting to be naked in the woods for longer than she needs to. She momentarily relishes in the feeling of her bones breaking and reforming before her thoughts are streamlined as she shifts into her wolf state of mind. The world is clear, uncomplicated, and unyielding, like the ground beneath her paws as she begins to run. Hope’s only thoughts are of the movement of the air across her body, the power of her legs pounding against the ground, and the sounds of the forest around her. Well, at least until she smells something familiar, but entirely out of place, another wolf.

Hope is so unprepared to find another wolf in the woods, that she isn’t able to get out of the way when it lunges at her, causing her to get completely bodied by the large black beast. The two wolves go tumbling through the forest, rolling over each other before coming to a stop. Hope quickly puts some distance between herself and the black wolf to regroup. 

As the two wolves circle each other, waiting for an opportunity to attack, Hope’s mind screams as she realizes that she knows this wolf, or more importantly that she completely forgot about giving Rafael that ring for him to transform. Hope doesn’t have time to dwell on how long Rafael has been trapped as a wolf, because the black beast in front of her lunges again.

Hope dodges the attack quickly and spins around to retaliate. She doesn’t want to hurt Raf, but he won’t back down unless she beats him, so she’ll have to. Hope lunges at Raf while he is recovering from his attack, causing him to stumble to the ground. Hope easily takes advantage of this and sets her jaws around his neck, not quite biting down, but applying enough pressure that he knows he’s been beaten.

The black wolf’s body goes limp, knowing better than to struggle with sharp teeth surrounding its neck. It still lets out a low growl, so Hope tightens her jaws just a little until that growl fades into a quiet whimper. Only then does Hope release her hold and back off. Raf slowly gets up, keeping his head low to show submission.

Hope’s human mind struggles to rise to the surface of her consciousness to process the situation before her. She needs to be in human form in order to undo the spell so Raf can turn back into a human, but if she transforms, then Raf might be able to recognize her later and there’s no way she could lie her way out of that one. But, if she doesn’t undo the spell, then Raf will be stuck as a wolf forever. Hope already knows what her decision is, even if she is still arguing with herself.

Hope transforms back into a human, feeling extremely exposed and vulnerable for a number of reasons, and quickly undoes the spell for Raf. Rafael immediately starts groaning as his body shifts back to human form. Hope takes her chance to transform back into a wolf before Raf is fully a human again and rushes back into the woods. She wishes that she could stay and lead Raf back to somewhere safe, but she can’t risk it. She doesn’t even let herself glance back as Raf screams in agony from the transformation.

Hope quickly finds her clothes, transforms back, gets dressed, and hurries back to her room. She only lets herself breath normally once she has closed the door behind her. And, God, once she’s there, she realizes how exhausted she is. Some first day back, huh?

Hope flops down on her bed and curls up, telling herself that she’ll go get some dinner in a little bit as her eyes close and she drifts to sleep again.

“So, Landon and I were just out in the woods watching a movie with Rafael,” Josie explains breathlessly, as she jogs through the forest, Lizzie and MG trailing behind her, “but about halfway through, Raf gets up and leaves. Landon said that it was a little weird, but that he’d probably be back soon. After a couple of minutes, we heard some growling and branches snapping in the woods and went to go check it out. Landon wanted to make sure that Raf was okay, and when we found him he wasn’t a wolf anymore. He’s a human again.”

“Holy shit,” Lizzie says, and MG murmurs in agreement.

“Raf seems really out of it, so we need help getting him back to the school. Landon didn’t want to leave him, so I came and got you guys,” Josie finishes as Landon and Rafael come into view.

They find Rafael half curled up on the forest floor, completely naked and shifting around violently in a confused state. Landon is crouched next to him, trying to calm him down. Landon’s head raises when he hears them coming, his expression becoming a mixture of worry and relief.

“Good, you’re here. MG, quick, grab his other shoulder so we can get him inside,” Landon says, gingerly wrapping an arm around Raf. Rafael doesn’t seem pleased with this turn of events, growling and snapping at Landon. Landon flinches back, his brow furrowing as his brother snarls at him.

“Here, I got it,” MG says, using his vampire speed to pin Raf’s arms behind his back.

“Just be careful,” Landon says anxiously, looking heartbroken at seeing Raf like this.

“How did this happen?” Lizzie asks, as they start to head back to the school, MG pushing Raf forward in front of him. Raf continues to struggle, but thanks to MG’s vampire strength and the angle Raf’s arms are pinned in, there isn’t much he can do.

“I don’t know. All Landon and I heard was growling and scuffling. We didn’t make it in time to see what caused it,” Josie answers, her arm slung around Landon’s shoulders to comfort him.

“So, where are we taking him?” MG asks, looking extremely uncomfortable as he vaguely struggled with the naked werewolf in his arms.

Josie shares a look with her sister around Landon before saying, “I think we need to take him to a transition cell, at least we can get him to calm down a little and put on some clothes.”

Landon immediately looks indignant, clearly planning to argue, but Lizzie speaks before he has a chance.

“Agreed, the last thing we need right now is a naked, feral werewolf running around the school,” Lizzie says, sending a pointed look at Landon until he closes his mouth.

After a short walk to the basement of the werewolf dorms, the group manages to wrestle Raf into a cell, thankfully with no one getting bitten. Then they stand around for a second, figuring out what to do next.

“I’m going to go up to our room and grab some of his clothes and some bedding so I can spend the night down here,” Landon says, his tone leaving no room for argument about his decision to stay by his brother’s side.

“Okay, I’ll go let the headmaster know what happened,” MG says, turning to leave.

“Landon and I haven’t eaten yet today, and we have no way of know when the last time Raf ate was, so I’ll head to the dining hall to grab some food for us,” Josie says, mostly just addressing her sister, considering the two boys are already halfway out the door.

“I haven’t had dinner yet, either. I’ll go with you,” Lizzie says, starting up the stairs with Josie. 

The twins make their way to the dining hall. The time for dinner has already passed, so it’s basically empty as the girls make their way to the kitchen in the back. Lizzie is only half listening to Josie thinking out loud about what they can feed Raf, when she hears someone else rummaging around in the kitchen. 

Both Lizzie and Josie freeze in their step, seeing the refrigerator door open, a figure half way inside to browse the contents. Obviously, it’s not weird for someone to be eating late or grabbing a snack, but between Malivore being back, mysterious new girls, and what just happened with Rafael, both girls are a little on edge lately. They watch the door warily, until finally, the door shuts, revealing Hope with four different lunch meats balanced in her arms and a packet of cheese handing out of her mouth.

Josie and Lizzie both breath an unconscious sigh of relief, while Hope startles, almost dropping three out of the four cold cuts packages. Hope manages not to drop anything, dumping the food on the counter, before turning back to the twins with a nervous smile.

“Hey,” Hope says awkwardly, glancing a Lizzie briefly before her gaze falls to the floor.

Lizzie shares a look with Josie, which seems to communicate something, because Josie immediately walks past the two of them to do what she came here to do, leaving Lizzie and Hope to talk.

“Hey, Hope,” Lizzie says with a smile. “You weren’t in seventh hour. Is everything okay?” Lizzie asks abruptly.

“Oh, yeah, sorry about that. I fell asleep during my free period and slept right through it,” Hope says, her hand coming up to rub the back of her neck anxiously.

“That’s totally fine. I’ve definitely done that before,” Lizzie says with a laugh. “We actually got into groups for a project today. Lucky for you, I made sure you were in my group.”

Hope is surprised to feel a wave of relief at that. She has no idea what the project is, but at least she knows she won’t be alone. Hope feels the fleeting thought that as long as Lizzie is with her, she can face anything, and it kind of make her brain freeze up trying to process where that came from.

“Did you sleep through dinner, too, or are you just having an after dinner snack?” Lizzie teases, breaking Hope out of her thoughts. 

Hope chuckles, her face feeling warm. “Um, actually, when I woke up I just didn’t want to have to deal with people, so I waited to eat,” Hope says, appeasing with her conscience by telling a half-truth.

“Oh, well, I was coming to eat, but I can just take something back to my room, if you want to be alone,” Lizzie says, a slight disappointment in her voice.

“No, that’s okay,” Hope says, instantly. “You don’t count as people-- Wait, uh no, that’s not what I meant. I just mean that I was talking about other people, you know the, um…” Hope trails off, realizing that she is only digging herself deeper.

Somehow though, Lizzie’s smile grows brighter at Hope’s awkward rambling. She takes a step closer to where Hope is leaning against the counter, tilting her head down to look right into Hope’s eyes. “I would love to have dinner with you, Hope,” Lizzie says, a gleam of mischief in her eyes.

Hope feels weird. Lizzie is so close to her and she feels like her body is buzzing. She can hear Lizzie’s heart beat and breathing so clearly, and when a lock of hair falls in her face because she’s looking down on Hope, Hope’s eyes follow its movement with an intense fascination. Hope’s hands grip the counter top dangerously hard for a reason she isn’t quite sure of.

“Cool,” Hope says, her voice sounding oddly airy and strained in her ears.

Lizzie smirks, stepping back and tucking the stray lock of hair behind her ear. “Okay then, but please tell me you are planning on making a sandwich, because I’m not sure I can sit and watch you eat lunch meat out of the package.”

Hope’s eyes widen, knowing that that is definitely something she’s done before. “Um, yeah,” She says with a nervous chuckle.

“Let me just see if Josie needs help carrying anything,” Lizzie says, turning away to talk to her sister.

Hope feels a rush of embarrassment when she realizes that she had completely forgotten Josie was even there. She pushes it down and moves to grab the bread for her sandwich. Hope can vaguely hear the twins’ conversation as she layers various meats on bread. After only a moment, she realizes that they are talking about Raf and bringing food to him down in the werewolf transition cellar. 

Hope lets out a relieved sigh when she hears this, glad to know that they found Raf and that he’s okay. She feels the urge to go see him and make sure he’s okay, maybe even talk to him, knowing that he could probably really use a friend that knows what he’s going through right now. Hope shakes her head at the thought. That would raise too many questions and she wouldn’t really be able to explain anything to him without giving herself away. She feels another drop of guilt add to the growing pit in her stomach.

Lizzie comes back over to Hope after a few moments. “I just have to help Josie drop carry some stuff downstairs, but I’ll be right back, okay?”

“Oh, okay, do you need any help?” Hope asks immediately.

“No, I think we got it,” Lizzie says, glancing back at Josie for a second.

“Okay, do you want me to make you something, so you can eat when you get back?”

Lizzie hesitates, considering the idea. She is pretty hungry and that is a really sweet offer of Hope, but Lizzie is also kind of particular about her food. “Um, sure, thanks, Hope,” Lizzie says after a moment. “I like turkey on my sandwich and not too much cheese,” she adds before heading off with her sister.

Luckily for Lizzie, Hope knows how particular Lizzie is about food. In fact, Hope has endured on more than one occasion a rant from Lizzie about how Hope’s sandwiches are an affront to the art of preparing food, a rant which just so happened to usually include Lizzie’s own recipe for making the perfect sandwich. At the time, Hope had found the speech ridiculous, as if she would ever eat a sandwich with only one kind of meat in it, but right now, Hope is happy to have a pretty good road map to Lizzie Saltzman’s perfect sandwich.

Hope pushes aside her own sandwich for a minute while she carefully constructs Lizzie’s, straining to remember what Lizzie had said about breaking up the cheese into little pieces. Once she is done, and kind of proud of herself, Hope goes back to haphazardly slapping meat together for her own sandwich. She’s just about finished when she hears Lizzie entering back into the dining hall.

“Hey, I’m back,” Lizzie calls as she walks into the kitchen.

“Hey,” Hope says, standing in front of the sandwich she prepared, suddenly nervous about what Lizzie will think. Hope doesn’t move for a long moment, only breaking out of her thoughts when Lizzie raises a questioning eyebrow at her. “Oh, sorry, here,” She says, reaching behind her to grab the sandwich and extending the plate out to Lizzie.

“Thanks,” Lizzie says, warily evaluating the sandwich in her hand and trying very hard to look like she’s not doing that.

Hope watches Lizzie’s reaction carefully as she grabs her own sandwich and the two of them walk out of the kitchen and sit down at a table. The lights in the dining hall are in low power mode, which allows for some of the moonlight outside to shine in. Hope sits down across from Lizzie and immediately starts eating, her stomach growling impatiently.

“Oh, god, how many slices of meat are in that thing? Can you even taste any of them?” Lizzie says with a laugh and a grimace.

“What do you mean? Don’t they all taste like meat?” Hope says with her mouth full, her hand in front of her mouth so she doesn’t spit any food.

Lizzie looks horrified at Hope’s words. “There are so many things wrong with that, I don’t even know where to start,” She says with a laugh.

Lizzie then proceeds to try and subtly inspect the sandwich, lifting up the bread to see the contents. Her eyebrows raise in surprise before she notices how closely Hope is watching her.

“Sorry, I don’t mean to be weird, I’m just sort of a picky eater,” Lizzie says, nervously.

“Oh, you could’ve said something. You don’t have to eat it if you don’t want to,” Hope says gently, feeling disappointed that even with all the things she shouldn’t know about Lizzie, she still wasn’t able to make something that Lizzie would like.

“Oh, no, it actually looks really good,” Lizzie quickly corrects Hope’s assumption. “To be honest, I’m pretty surprised you made such a good sandwich for me, considering what you made for yourself.” Lizzie casts an amused glance at what is left of Hope’s sandwich.

Hope brightens instantly, feeling such a wave of pride that not even the guilt in her stomach can dislodge it. “I’m glad you like it. I actually consider myself a pretty good cook, but considering how much food I eat on a daily basis, at this point it’s quantity over quality,” Hope says with a shrug, unable to keep the smile off of her face.

“I guess I see your point there,” Lizzie concedes with a slight laugh.

The two girls only talk a little more as they finish their meal in the dim lighting of the dining hall. After a bit, Lizzie tells Hope about what happened with Rafael in the woods, or at least what she knows about it. Hope tries to ask questions that would make sense for her to ask as a witch who knows nothing of the situation. By the time they are done eating, it’s nearly curfew and both girls are fighting back yawns. They walk together back toward the dorms in comfortable silence. They part ways with a brief goodbye and both girls head to their rooms with soft smiles still lingering on their faces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you tell I was hungry while writing that last part?


End file.
